The Bay Area welcomed autumn with the year’s first rain on Saturday. When I looked out at my front porch the following day, I noticed a tendril of the morning glory my former housemate planted along the sidewalk earlier this spring had reached up into the mailbox. Happy to see it growing, I tried to gently prod it free of the post box with my fingertip. But it wouldn’t budge.

The view on Sunday, one day after the rain.Closeup of the tendril. Notice how narrow the opening between the mailbox and its locked lid is.

Today (Monday), I opened the mailbox and found the plant’s tendril had not only wormed its way through the tight crack beneath the lid, but had extended itself a good two inches into the pitch black of the letter box and wrapped itself around the lock cylinder.